Pix-&amp;-Vidz: Santas Against Excessive Consumpti

Five brave counterculture warriors don Santa Suits, sing anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist Xmas carols, and leaflet for more mindful attention to love, gifts, and catastrophic climate change – in Oxford Street, in the heart of the shopping district of Old London Town, on the busiest shopping day of the year: Sat 13 Dec 08.

Turning material wealth into possessions makes you happy; shopping till you drop and retail therapy are good for everybody; proving you love somebody means giving them an expensive present. The bullplop promoted by Capital’s advertising and marketing psyche-manipulators has never needed challenging more than it does today, in the worst of the madness of Xmas shopping mass-psychosis during a cash-strapped credit crunch recession.

Our yuletide ‘tradition’ at London Rising Tide [1] involves a ‘Santas Against Excessive Consumption’ [2] choral street action – mass dressing as Santa Claus, social singing of anti-consumerist Xmas carols, and letting folks know by leaflet that there is an alternative to the dominant the-one-who-dies-with-the-most-toys-wins idiocy of hyperconsumerism. Since the rain was heavy and steady, we sought shelter and performance space in the West One indoor shopping mall on Oxford Street, by Bond Street tube station. But anti-capitalist choristers only dampened what little Xmas spirit the security boss had left – and he threatened to call the cops if we didn’t leave forthwith.

Thankfully, his remit seemed to run out at the doors to Oxford Street, which still left us with a suitably sized covered area in which we could sing to our hearts content, and compete with the McDonalds McFlyer to see who could give away the most leaflets per unit time. The applause of shoppers happy to be spared, if only temporarily, from the soul-rotting rounds of shopping for tat was much appreciated.

The lyrics of the songs you can hear us singing in the video (so you can sing along, or even stage your own Santas Against Conspicuous Consumption street action) are as follows.

___________________________________________________________________1 (& 3). Jingle All The Way – to the tune of Jingle Bells

Chorus:Profits here, profits there,profits everywhereChristmas time is funnywe smell money in the airAdvertise, glamorize,fool you with a flair.Let's make sure that Christmasis a businesslike affair.

You're eating up our lies and dashing to the storesThen all our prices rise and how the money poursIf we don't keep you drugged and watching your TVYou might see the hypocrisythen where would business be?

Chorus

We'll tell you how to think and tell you what to tryWhat to eat and drink and how to live and dieAnd if our plan succeeds, when Christmas-time is nighInstead of seeking love and peace you'll hunt for gifts to buy

For capitalists, giving means buying tat from them first. For anti-capitalists, a gift economy can undermine the market economics that poison our environment, our culture and our minds – for example, see ‘Creating Our Future World One Gift At A Time’ – http://tinyurl.com/gift-economy